A few weeks ago a fellow named Jeffrey Doyle posted a “history of economic thought” type comment/post on the blog, which can be found here.

Beyond this he also added one additional criticism of “neo-classical economics” – the focus on “monetary flows” instead of energy. Of course, as a criticism of economic science this is a misnomer – economic science is the study of scarcity, and “monetary flows” are merely a convientent way of representing this scarcity. Using energy as a representation should – if the models are sufficiently specified – provide the same results. Now, in when applying models there may be substantial differences, given what is implicitly assumed to be useful or not in different models – while this argument is important for application it is not something I can argue about, as I do not have the scarce intellectual talent to go around and apply a new set of assumptions to an underlying framework of scarcity.

However, my impression is that Dr Doyle is not criticising the individualistic methodological process in economics – he is attacking the “economic unit” used when we study scarcity, something that is constantly occurring and is a healthy part of any discipline.

However much I was looking forward to launching my own incredibly risky finance company, I’m glad that the RBNZ and Treasury have tidied up what was a terrible decision by the government to extend deposit protection to finance companies at no charge.

This video was doing the rounds amongst the investment bankers/consultants a while a go. I must say it’s hilarious. However I’m sure the management consultants that this video mocks are feeling slightly more secure about their jobs at the moment.

note: Youtube is blocked at work so I have no idea if my first attempt at posting a video has been successful:)

I wouldn’t go as far as saying being an economist is a recession proof career. But at the moment I would say “damn it feels good to be an economist” relative to being an investment banker. If I had any rapping/video editing skills I might try and make a reply video. It would definitely have Matt Nolan as the front man, given he is such a pimp:)

Agnitio

p.s. Obviously economists can’t be trusted with youtube at work. I think it’s fair enough, I definitely suffer form bounded will power:)